Unmanned vehicles such as unmanned aerial vehicles can be used for performing surveillance, reconnaissance, and exploration tasks in a wide variety of environments for military and civilian applications. An unmanned aerial vehicle may be manually controlled by a remote user, or may operate in a semi-autonomous or fully autonomous manner. Various control schemes can be implemented to enable operation of an unmanned aerial vehicle within an environment with varying degrees of autonomy.
However, existing control schemes for unmanned aerial vehicles may not be optimal in some instances. For example, some control schemes may rely upon the user's own judgment to determine optimal operating parameters for the unmanned aerial vehicle, which may be difficult for inexperienced users or in situations where the user cannot accurately perceive the environment surrounding the unmanned aerial vehicle. Additionally, some control schemes may not provide safety mechanisms for automatically detecting and/or predicting collisions with obstacles, sensor malfunctions, or other error situations that may be encountered during operation of the unmanned aerial vehicle.